The NPA must decide whether to proceed with charges against three VIP guards who allegedly assaulted Andile Lili.
|||Cape Town - The National Prosecuting Authority is deliberating whether to go ahead with charges laid against three members of the City’s VIP protection services for allegedly assaulting a former ANC councillor and “poo protester”.
The three VIP bodyguards are accused of assaulting sanitation protest leader Andile Lili.
The three men did not appear in the Cape Town magistrate’s Court as expected on Wednesday, as the Senior Public Prosecutor decided to send the docket to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for a decision instead of putting the matter on the court roll. The men have been charged with common assault, according to a police docket, but have not been formally charged in court.
They cannot be named until they have appeared in court.
But NPA spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said the docket had not yet been forwarded to the DPP, because the prosecutor was waiting for evidence from the defence, which was likely to influence the decision.
“No date has been set for them to come back to court again as no decision has been taken on whether to prosecute or not,” Ntabazalila said.
Lili said he was told by the court that he would be notified when a decision was reached.
“If the case is struck off, we will challenge it,” Lili said.
Lili alleged that he was manhandled, insulted and assaulted by the bodyguards as well as metro police when he tried to access the fifth floor of the Civic Centre to inquire about his pension.
Lili was expelled as a councillor earlier this year, and also suspended from the ANC because of his involvement in dumping faeces at the Cape Town International Airport and the Western Cape legislature.
chelsea.geach@inl.co.za
Cadet News Agency
Cape Argus